Citation:
“Piracy: Online and On The Street”. RIAA. November 28 2009 .

desertrhino, “Sample::sad.aif”. thefreesoundproject. November 29 2009 .

I knew that this would be a difficult project. Video editing is a technical challenge and a daunting task for the uninitiated. The one thing this project has taught me that, while I love movies and video clips, I should stay as far away from the world of video editing. I have neither the patience nor aptitude to pull off a well edited video. I did not like how my video turned out. I was unable to do the things as I originally planned and had to rush things, especially the filming. Editing audio and manipulating photos were much more enjoyable than wrestling with video.

For the content, I had to change a lot of what I had planned due to technical issues with the equipment. I had planned for more people to help, but scheduling issues prevented all but one from coming. Most of the script I had written was useless and thus, I had to throw together a quick script for the two of us. The main point I was trying to get across was how the RIAA isn’t the victim it plays itself out to be and how the music industry is rife with excess (the music star scene). The overall message was that people need to support the artists, not the record company that sponsors them.

2. Software Piracy- I give this a separate category because I will also discuss a few of the current woes of the video game industry such as shorter, more expensive games, releasing unfinished/buggy games and restrictive copy-protection on games that make things more difficult for legal consumers and not stopping piracy.

RIAA= Recording Industry Association of America

When I made these pictures, I wanted to provide a satirical outlook on how the recording industry sees music pirates. The first picture, I added an eye patch to go with the evil expression. The main goal was to give an example of how the recording industry in America views people who download music. They make music downloader’s out to be some evil person who is doing it to destroy the industry and spite the artists who made the music.

The second picture was made to show how ridiculous the music industries punishments are. Actual pirates stole gold in the past, and physical goods today. Punishment they received fit the crime. In today’s world of internet music download, there is no possible way an illegally downloaded song could invoke damages into the thousands of dollars, even amounts over a few dollars is pushing it. I understand the industry wanting to protect itself, but at the same time, by ‘making examples’ of people they further infuriate those that download music.

My last picture is probably my favorite of the three. It shows a hand sinking into a pond holding a sword above it. This symbolizes the recording industries utter refusal to adapt to changing times. As the body (symbolizing the industry) sinks into the pond, it protects its sword (the legal department) until the very end. Even though you would think the industry would focus on other problems, such as why people are downloading songs instead of buying CD’s or paying .99-1.20 per song, they stand steadfast in their ways and continue their attack to the very end.

As for the video itself, I found it iffy. At the beginning, the music was too powerful and didn’t really fit with the images. It was hard to hear him talking over the music. Throughout the video, the audio was inconsistent. Some interviews would come through clear while others were muted to the point where I could barely hear them. Also, the volume jumped from one interview to the next causing me to constantly adjust my speakers. The clicks and pops got annoying as well.

Audio aside, I liked the video portion. I though the editing was really well done and it moved fluidly between different scenes and cuts.

Rough draft of pictures.

I’m going to use these images to talk about internet piracy.

My Audio Narrative

Getting to where I am now was no easy task. As an avid gamer and having access to an ISDN, I was always messing up my computer. (For those that don’t know, ISDN stands for Integrated Services Digital Network for those who don’t know. If you’re still lost, think of it as a primitive form of high-speed, if you could call 12 kbps high-speed.) I was always downloading things for my games, like patches, mods and trainers. Needless to say, some of these things came packed with virus’ which proceeded to destroy my system. Luckily, I had nothing too important, so the occasional formatting of my hard drive wasn’t too devastating. The other issue I had was upgrading my computer. Whether it was a hard drive, a new graphics card, or even a new motherboard and processor, nothing ever seemed to go as planned. My father and I would install the new hardware in five to ten minutes and then spend the next four to six hours trying to figure out why nothing was working. Even with something as simple as upgrading my monitor from a 15 inch to a 21 inch widescreen was a two hour hassle as I could never get Windows XP to boot with the right screen resolution.

But now, I am much more informed and cautious when it comes to computers. I always scan a file before opening it and avoid dangerous sites. I still get the occasional virus, but nothing major enough to warrant and entire system wipe. (A good thing considering the size of my hard drives, instead of the six gigabyte one I had in my old computer, I now have multiple drives over 200 gigabytes.) As for hardware, I still have some issues when I install a new graphics card, but I am able to get things running smoothly again in several minutes instead of the hours it took before. Even still, I do have the occasional problem where I need to call my residential computer technician to get things running again. Fortunately, that’s still free.